In closed operating environments in which vehicles move partially autonomously or completely autonomously, normally vehicle-side sensors serve to avoid collisions with objects in the environment of the vehicle. One must assume that there are also persons in the operating environment and typically at least one trigger device is provided within the operating environment as an additional safety measure. Using this, a stop signal can be triggered which causes the vehicle to stop immediately. One known example of this is an emergency cut off switch which can be actuated by a person when for example a collision of the vehicle with other vehicles or with an object or another person threatens.
In conventional methods, however such a stop signal typically is transmitted from a trigger device to all vehicles in the operating environment or to all vehicles coupled to the trigger device (for example by cable, radio, or an identification means), so that after triggering a complete operational standstill ensues.
Such a generalized stopping of all vehicles consequently means that vehicles that are moving entirely problem-free at the time of triggering are also stopped. This applies in particular when a plurality of triggering devices are used in an operating environment with a plurality of vehicles. To eliminate the operating standstill, consequently, a very time-consuming enabling of operation of the vehicles is necessary.